Lifestyle

national museum

the national museum is advertising [although not on NMA’s recruitment page – Ed] for a new director [the previous director, Craddock Morton, announced his retirement in Sept – Ed] .. oh i hope he /she is not a fan of multi interactive screens and noise noise noise ..

why cant we just see some of the thousands of objects you keep hidden from us whilst you fill spaces with annoying loud flickering garbage..

im not anti techno with delicate ears but come on … how on earth can you enjoy it with your senses being abused .. most other museums have an inviting environment to learn and absorb ..

What’s Your opinion?

It took me several years of regular visits to the museum AND asking directions to a particular advertised exhibit before I discovered the two-storey section devoted to the permanent Aboriginal and Islander display. Hmmm interesting… was that an intentional thing or not?

Last time we were there a good chunk of the first bit of the first floor (ie just beyond Circa) was closed for a revamp and have not been back since.

I’d also like to petition management to bring back the original Circa!

I’ve dragged six separate family groups through that place in the last 18 months, so I feel I can speak with some authority.

There is one excellent room tucked away in one of the basements. It’s several bays of orange metal floor-to-ceiling display cases absolutely chockas with aboriginal and islander artefacts (spears, boomerangs, masks etc). But you can only get into the damn thing if they forget to close the door after school groups have walked through it. And the lights go off every 10 minutes.

But my big whinge is… who is responsible for the floorplan? I say responsible because I don’t think anyone designed it. Every time we try to follow a path that sees us visit each exhibit – once. And every time we’ve had to backtrack at some point. What kind of sadist implements a museum without an optimal search path?

Any actual artefacts seem to be drowned out by all the bling. It’s like being in a casino! It’s a museum-LITE. I hate it with a passion!

hooray – I totally agree with ya comment – this is a museum for the public with public funds – if artefacts are not on display they are in storage in controlled areas costing more $$$$’s

jesus … didnt realise teacher was marking english on this thing … get a life – its only a soapbox site – comment on the subject matter or do you lack spare time to visit the museum coz your too busy searching grammar mistakes on the net.

Any actual artefacts seem to be drowned out by all the bling. It’s like being in a casino! It’s a museum-LITE. I hate it with a passion!

It would be a lot better if it was all placed in a chronological order, Would be even better if they had an anomalous archeology exhibition so they could show all the bits and pieces that they have that dont quite fit into accepted Australian history. Maybe they could also show less Hills Hoists and old Victa lawn mowers too.

The noise thing is a real issue for people who have trouble picking out one sound/noise from another (it’s an early sign of hearing loss and most of us would have first noticed it when we had to work a bit harder to hear the conversation in a noisy pub, or is that my age showing?). But, the museum setup seems to work for the mass communication generation – until their hearing starts to go, of course.

Some areas are worse than others because there isn’t enough physical space between competing speakers. And anyone with hearing difficulties shouldn’t go when it’s busy.